Category Archives: movies

The Daily Mirror claims that Quentin Tarantino wants Lady Gaga for a role in a future film. Of course, this is a British tabloid story, likely based only on the fact that Gaga made a video last year which was basically a Tarantino homage co-starring Beyonce and on the coincidence that both Gaga and Tarantino are in Cannes right now.

According to the Daily Mirror today (May 12), the Pulp Fiction director is keen to meet up with Gaga at the Cannes Film Festival, where the singer performed last night. A source told the paper: “It’s no secret Quentin’s been eyeing up Gaga for a role in one of his up-and-coming films. And now they’re both in Cannes, he’s keen to show off his movie star credentials.”

Gaga is a confirmed fan of the director, having based her video for her duet with Beyonce, “Telephone”, around his Kill Bill film series.

Tarantino has recently confirmed his new film, which he has finished the script for, will be titled Django Unchained. The film will tell the story of a freed slave’s revenge against his former master. Whether this is what he had in mind for Gaga or not isn’t quite clear yet… [via NME]

Despite this being complete tabloid gossip, it’s fun to imagine how Gaga’s big screen debut would manifest itself. Maybe she could play a seductress who doubles as a faceless criminal in a comic book-styled pulp action thriller. Hmm. No, no, this is better…She’ll be a sexy, tough New Yorker who helps round out a team of professional female baseballers in a World War II era dramedy. Nah, I got it now. I’m tellin ya, this is the one…She’d be perfect in the lead role of a rags-to-riches biopic musical about a strong female spiritual leader in some South American country. Is anyone in Hollywood reading this? I’m available for work…Have your people call my people.

2011 is shaping up to be quite the year for enthusiasts of (good) nineties music. Four months into it, and we’ve already seen two Pearl Jam deluxe reissues (with a newly-released live album), new Radiohead, new Foo Fighters, new Cake, and new Beastie Boys. Well, we now we have confirmation of the following tasty nineties nuggets for the second half of the year…

CHILI PEPPERS CONFIRM AUGUST RELEASE OF NEW ALBUM

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer and resident Will Ferrell impersonator Chad Smith tells Rock It Out that the band’s tenth studio album (their first with new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer) is set for release during the final week of August. While the album doesn’t yet have a name, I can confirm that it does indeed have a place reserved in my heart (read: pants). [via Ultimate-Guitar.com]

PEARL JAM DOCUMENTARY SET FOR SEPTEMBER RELEASE

Nineties alt-grunge filmmaker hero Cameron Crowe has been working on a Pearl Jam documentary for years now, and the release has finally been set for September. While it’s not yet known if Pearl Jam Twenty will have a wide release, its release will be accompanied by the release of a book and soundtrack. I have to assume they don’t mean they’ll be handing out the book and soundtrack in the theaters before showings. Which is a shame because my mom’s always told me that I’m a great multitasker! [via NME]

UPDATE: The band just released a painfully short teaser today. Check it here.

SMASHING PUMPKINS TO RELEASE NEW MATERIAL IN SEPTEMBER

Billy Corgan and some other guys The Smashing Pumpkins are set to record new material in May as part of their ongoing 44-song pretention-fest entitled Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, with release (under the title Oceania) set for September. Meanwhile, remastered deluxe versions of albums spanning 1991 through 2000, containing bonus material, will start rolling out this fall, which is nice news for fans of the actual Smashing Pumpkins. [via Ultimate-Guitar.com]

Beastie Boys premiered their short film Fight For Your Right Revisted last night on various networks, but the one to catch was the explicit 3am Comedy Central airing. It had too many celebrity cameos to list, but the real joy was watching Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, and Elijah Wood pick up right where Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock left off 25 years ago, causing a ruckus to the tune of their infectiously awesome new single “Make Some Noise” (check out their official video for the song–a short-form version of the 30-minute film–here).

Here’s the link to the long-form video, and I suggest you check it out if you have 30 minutes to kill. It was pretty great, albeit anti-climactic. Unless you consider six guys peeing all over each other in the middle of a dance-off climactic. I don’t, of course. I call that losing my Sunday afternoon horseshoe tournaments.

Two days ago saw the anniversary of the deaths of two Seattle grunge rock icons, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana (suicide, 1994) and Layne Staley of Alice In Chains (heroin and cocaine overdose, 2002). And while most people quietly celebrated their lives and contributions to music by popping in their favorite Nirvana or AIC CDs, 30 Second To Mars musician/actor Jared Leto decided to pay tribute to Cobain by releasing an audition tape he crafted a while back in which he performs acoustically in character as Cobain. He had this to say about it on his blog…

“I heard today was the day Kurt passed away 17 years ago. Can’t believe it’s been that long. So grateful for his contribution and inspiration. Not sure I’d be doing this if it weren’t for him. He gave us all permission to create no matter what our skill set and reminded me that dreams are possible. Thanks for that. This made me recall a short piece of film I shot when I heard they were making a film celebrating his life. I made it to explore the character and explore creative possibilities. I never sent it to the studio or to anyone but thought I’d share it now…” [via JaredLeto.com]

The clip is below, and I can’t help but believe that, as far as Leto’s motives go, a genuine appreciation for Cobain and his music is slightly outweighed by a shameless use of the anniversary of Cobain’s death as an opportunity to garner buzz and support for him to win the role of Cobain in the biopic that Courtney Love has been planning for years (although, this may have also been Leto’s audition tape for Gus Van Zant’s 2005 fictionalized Cobain film Last Days). And while I’m tempted to encourage Jared Leto to act out the final, shotgun-tastic moments of Cobain’s life as an encore to this tacky “tribute,” he kinda won me over with his portrayal. And this may actually prove him to be just tasteless enough to play Cobain, because really, what’s more tasteless than leaving behind a baby, wife, and successful career by offing yourself? Speaking of wife, I’m sure Leto can be expecting a call from her army of drooling attorneys any minute now.

New York’s Tribeca Film Festival will see the premiere of a documentary focusing on the religious upbringing and musical career of the Kings of Leon. Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon is premiering as a “work-in-progress,” which is weird (Is that a regular occurrence at film festivals? Why couldn’t they wait until next year?), but it gives me hope that more chapters in the band’s history will be included than the scenes from the trailer above let on. Very specifically, that time last summer when the band was firebombed by a flock of pigeons during a show in St. Louis. And if the filmmakers were smart they’d make that sh*t 3D. I mean literally, make the bird sh*t 3D. Or, dare I say, 4D. Like somewhere between an Disney/MGM Studios “Alien Encounter” experience and a Charlie Sheen “Watching Jaws On A Projection Screen On A Yacht In The Middle Of The Ocean” experience. I smell big box office numbers for that one. Or is that bird poop? One, or two, or neither of those things are odorless…I forget.

Well, it’s April Fools’ Day. Or, as I like to call it, “I Should’ve Stayed In Bed Day.” So, it should come as no surprise that I immediately dismissed this story when I opened it up…

Vanilla Ice will star as Captain Hook in a pantomime production of Peter Pan this winter.

Taking place at the Central Theatre in Chatham, the show will mark the ‘Ice Ice Baby’ hitmaker’s panto debut. [via NME]

Now, believe me, I was posting this story regardless, because whether or not this is an April Fools’ joke is irrelevant. Just the mere idea that, thousands of miles apart from each other, potentially around the same time, Channing Tatum would be playing a young Peter Pan while Vanilla Ice, er, Rob Van Winkle, would be portraying PANTOMIMING Captain Hook was more than enough to send me into a giggle-fit and want to share it with you.

But my inherent investigative prowess took over, and one quick Google search later, a very funny April Fools’ joke became the greatest April Fools’ joke I’d seen in years, because IT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING. The story was reported on BBC News three days ago. And is not the greatest joke of all one that is not, in fact, a joke, but has us believing it to be a joke? I think Shakespeare said that somewhere. And by “somewhere,” I mean “nowhere.” But I can say with certainty that J.M. Barrie just threw up all over the inside of his coffin.

Amy Winehouse has spoken out about getting her messy ass kicked to the curb for songwriting honors for the new Bond film Quantum of Solace. She was replaced by Jack White and Alicia Keys, teaming up for the first duet in the franchise’s history. The crackwhore had this to say to New magazine about the situation…

I guess they are going for clean-cut and boring. [They] made a big mistake. If they want a worldwide hit, I have them all up here [pointing to her head].

If the future hits are up there, I’m not so sure they’ll ever see the light of day beneath the shit buried in that rat’s nest of a wig. And by “clean-cut and boring”, I can only assume she meant to say “talented and coherent”.

Should I feel bad about genuinely not caring if this bitch finally died? I’m tired of everything about her. But for reasons I’ve yet to figure out, she’d likely become another rock martyr, dead and immortalized at less than 30 years of age. I wonder if her recently unveiled wax figurine was able to capture her natural beauty and charm?